Centre for Equalities and Inclusion

At the Office for National Statistics's Centre for Equalities and Inclusion, created in 2018, we focus on improving standards of inclusivity in UK data and evidence.

We draw on the skills of our social researchers, statisticians and operational delivery professionals to find new ways of working with communities who may be underrepresented in UK data and evidence. We work to produce data and insights about them, with them, and for them. These data and insights help inform government decision-making, enhance public trust, and improve government data quality, by making them more inclusive and representative.

We are part of the UK Government Statistical Service, within the Analysis Function Support and Standards Division in the National Statistician’s Office. We provide advice and guidance on inclusive research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, as well as serving as the secretariat for the National Statistician's Inclusive Data Advisory Committee (NSIDAC). This is an independent expert group advising on data inclusivity as a foundational element of data quality.

We have worked with partners in the UK, EU and other countries to identify better ways of measuring equality of opportunities and outcomes across society, including representing the UK on EU and United Nations working groups.

In 2020, we supported a group of independent experts, the Inclusive Data Taskforce, commissioned by the National Statistician to produce recommendations on how to make UK data more inclusive. This was in keeping with our aim of ensuring everyone counts and is counted in UK data and evidence.

The recommendations of the Taskforce continue to provide an ambitious blueprint to guide progress towards more inclusive, trustworthy and representative data.

Gathering insights from working with underrepresented groups

In the Inclusive Data Taskforce's recommendations report, published in 2021, they noted specific communities for which data and evidence are very limited. Since then, we have undertaken research with several of these communities to produce further insights.

We are currently finalising a report into the lived experiences of Roma people, co-designed with members of Roma communities and stakeholders from academia, civil society and government. We will publish this research report, and a video summary of our findings, in September 2026. As part of wider dissemination, we will share these findings through policy "teach-ins", which will provide further insight into how lessons from this work can be used to improve future research and inform policy.

Previous work in this programme includes our:

• Disabled people's experiences with activities, goods and services, UK: February to March 2022 bulletin

• Educational experiences of young people with special educational needs and disabilities in England: February to May 2022 bulletin

• Experiences of displaced young people living in England: January to March 2023 article

• Gypsies' and Travellers' lived experiences, overview, England and Wales: 2022 article

• Women who have survived domestic abuse and their accommodation experiences in England: January to June 2023 article

Improving inclusiveness by meeting young people where they are

In response to falling social survey response rates and limited engagement of younger people in government surveys, we are currently undertaking the Young Voices project. In it, we explore children's and young people's (aged 11 to 24 years) perspectives on engaging with government-led research.

We will publish our initial findings in September 2026, and future steps will include further research into young people's diverse perspectives at a more granular level. These next phases of research will be developed and designed in collaboration with young people and government stakeholders from all UK countries.

Making equalities data more accessible and identifying gaps

We have also begun work on a programme to archive our qualitative datasets with the UK Data Service, the principal repository for economic, population, and social research data in the UK. Our aim is to make qualitative data that provide insights into the lives of statistically underrepresented groups more accessible for a range of additional uses.

The first de-identified dataset we archived allows approved researchers access to our research with women who have survived domestic abuse and their accommodation experiences in England. We are currently preparing a second dataset on the lived experiences of displaced young people in the UK for archiving.

In 2018, we published our first Equalities data audit dataset, to identify where data are available across the protected characteristic groups of the Equality Act 2010 and other data relating to equalities analyses across the UK. The audit was regularly updated to allow researchers to find new data sources and identify where data gaps remained. Although the work was paused in late 2024 because of resource constraints, we plan to review its value and uses with our stakeholders, and explore how it can be more efficiently produced, by the end of 2026.

We contribute to the Office for National Statistics's (ONS's) Community Connections and Equalities monthly newsletter, sharing updates and news about equalities data and research from the ONS and across the Government Statistical Service.

To subscribe, email us directly at equalities@ons.gov.uk or select the "Equalities" option from the available subscription topics under our email updates service.

Email us at equalities@ons.gov.uk.